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NEWS & LETTERS, November - December 2010
Queer Notes
by Elise
Marco Melgoza, seventh-grade student, protested anti-Gay bullies. With his dad Jerry Watson at his side, Melgoza carried the sign "Bullying Is a Weapon" outside his Middle School, Desmond, in Madera, California. He has been called names and been physically attacked. Melgoza joins people from San Francisco, to Utah, to New York City, from atheists to the Society of Friends, who will agitate or recently have agitated against anti-Gay violence.
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Honduran Lesbian rights organization Red Lesbica Cattrachas and Human Rights Watch witnessed the victorious sentencing of officer Amado Rodriguez Borjas for the stabbing of Transgender woman Nohelia. The historic sentence of 10-13 years occurred despite anonymous threats and obvious disdain from all but three court personnel. Honduran police commonly abuse Transgender people, and hate crimes against LGBT people are often ignored. It is a shame that hate-crime charges were not allowed to be brought.
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Banning Gays and Lesbians from adopting children is not constitutional, ruled Florida's Third District Court of Appeals, backing up an earlier Miami court ruling. Judge Gerald Cope wrote, agreeing with the earlier court, "that gay people and heterosexuals make equally good parents."
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The 11th observance of International Bisexuality Day (IBD) on Sept. 23 was marked with presentations, discussions, workshops, art and story sharing in, among other places, the United Kingdom's Cardiff County, Wales, and Edinburgh, Scotland, and Chicago, Illinois. Significantly, members of the Transgender community also presented in Chicago, because of the marginalization they encounter because they often don't closely "fit" into "traditional" gender and/or sexual orientation roles.
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Participants in what turned out to be a brief Pride march in Belgrade, Serbia, were attacked by anti-Gay forces who chanted "death to homosexuals." This was the first parade in almost ten years, and the attackers were actively defended by police. It remains to be seen whether Serbia will be allowed to join the European Union; it claims to be an open society.
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